天下制覇

So much for that.

Impressions:

What’s impressive about this episode is that there are three fights, and they managed to last a combined total of maybe about 30 seconds. Somehow, Yoite vs Kumohira managed to be the best animated one too. I don’t have too many issues with talky shows, but when the endless yammering onward is always about how everybody has super powers, is out to rule the world, kill eachother, a bloody sword-based revenge, or shoot out your eye with a finger gun, then there really does occasionally need to be some actual action to back up all the nonsense. Without it, you’ve just got DragonballZ all over again, except with people reading lines from a ninja based Hamlet instead of grunting and powering up for six episodes in a row.

I also find it interesting that they ended up not using the stills of the Raimei/Raikou fight that they showed last episode. Granted, that didn’t make the fight any better since it was still woefully short, woefully one-sided, woefully full of inappropriate classical music, and woefully full of angsty ranting, but I just wonder what exactly JCStaff did with them. I’m having a hard time buying Raikou as the sympathic/tragic character that they’re trying to build him up as too thanks to his berserker rage at the end there. Yeah, sure, you’re haunted by the ghosts of the family you slaughtered, but apparently you also have no problems cutting some thug into seventeen pieces of meat just because he punched your boytoy while you were trying to kill said thug.

Next episode looks like we finally get the HORRIBLY TRAGIC backstory of Raikou and a rematch between him and Raimei. I’m not really sure that I can bring myself to care, truth be told.

Preview:

Flashbacks! Oh boy!